To Professor David Horner and Doctor Mark Johnston, who supported my two research grant applications, and to the Australian Army for approving them.
To the staff at the research centre and the copyright section at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Also to the staff at the National Archives of Australia at Chester Hill in Sydney.
To Rick Dunn for his generosity in providing accommodation and sage advice during my trips to Washington. To Justin Taylan and Edward Rogers for their help and camaraderie researching at the US National Archives and US Naval Records in Washington. To Jim Zobel for his help at the MacArthur Archives in Norfolk, Virginia, and to the staff at the Office of Naval Records and Library in Washington for their assistance, including having some records declassified for me.
To Ian and Irene Priestley for their hospitality in Lae and to James Collins for getting me to some pretty remote spots around Lae. To John Douglas for his hospitality and assistance in Port Moresby.
A special thanks to Harumi Sakaguchi for access to Japanese accounts from Lae and for his skilful translation work. Thanks also to Steve Bullard for his translations and help with Japanese records from the AJRP. A big thanks to Keith Mitchell for his fine cartography and patience with my map changes.
To Rebecca Kaiser at Allen & Unwin for her support in getting the book proposal over the line. To my editor Angela Handley for again ensuring that every piece of this complex jigsaw was in the right place and to the copyeditor John Mahony for his diligent work. To Luke Causby for his outstanding design work.